Many institutions must comply with various rules, policies, regulations, and guidelines, whether established internally, by a regulatory entity, or as a result of legislation (hereinafter “rules”). Because some of these rules may place responsibility on the institution for overseeing consistent compliance or adherence to the rules, there is an increasing need for a comprehensive process to manage compliance programs across an entire business organization. Moreover, different lines of business (LOB's) within an organization may have different compliance policies and procedures. For very large and geographically diverse organizations, these requirements can create a significant challenge and resource expenditure.
In order to ensure that an organization's LOB's compliance programs are adequate and effective it is necessary for the organization to perform compliance program assessments. These assessments evaluate the documentation adequacy and execution effectiveness of the compliance program across the organization. Additionally, compliance assessments can at times uncover areas where improvements or remedial actions may be implemented. These efforts must have currency and must be adequately monitored and tracked over time. Therefore, there is a need for an integrated process and tool for efficiently assessing compliance programs and managing compliance program assessments across an organization.